Great change is simmering in all facets of our civilization, from economics and politics to science and spirituality.

Our inherited concept of a machine world — the clockwork universe — is giving way, and the vision of a 'web' is rising to take its place. New and profound rethinking is taking place across modern science, from anthropology to physics. Interdependence is now seen as central to understanding organization and change at all levels, from chemical networks and living cells to ecosystems, cities and economies. Current realities and new scientific insights are being woven into a fascinating vision of history and science, progressing through upheavals and rebirths up to the present day.

Humankind, too, is bound into the patterns and processes of this web world, and there are the already visible signs of an emerging 'integral Society' in which head, heart and soul need no longer be at odds. Integral culture has the potential to build a more sustainable and peaceful civilization. Yet all great change comes as a result of pressure and our present social and economic systems are already becoming unstable. If we do not integrate the core lessons of the web world — learning, collaboration, and intricacy — into our ways of life, we face the spectre of collapse. This is the current human condition, socially and scientifically laid out for all to see.

From: After the Clockwork Universe by S J GoernerSub-titled The Emerging Science and Culture of Integral Society and published by Floris Books of Edinburgh